#224 – Meracious Mike Manuduction

In this technical action packed show while Chris is away at the Electronica show in Germany, Dave & Mike Harrison from Mikes Electric Stuff discuss project design, manufacturing, quick turn PCB and project design, DIY stencils with the Silhouette Cameo vinyl cutter, $300 pick and place machine viability, parts procurement, large LED system design, LED diffusing and gamma correction techniques, and trade action stories.

Bunny was already on the show a while back and he was very interesting. Photonicinduction would have a few stories to tell. But there are number of posters on the EEVBlog forms like SeanB and DrDiesel who sound like they have a story or two as well.

About Mouser, most f not all of the major distributors share their POS data to the manufactures upon request for it. It’s just the data that is particular to the requesting mfr. our company uses it to track large or emerging large customers in order to offer in person customer support and to find possible opertunities for custom parts and value add, as well as compensate the local area mfr reps. Every time you buy a single part, multiple sales commissions are paid out to different entities / persons, so if buy a lot from one manufacturer, odds are there is a free lunch and other freebies just a phone call away!

its not about what they usually do and why, its about it being legal/illegal
Data protection laws in EU are very strong.
I suspect they have some silly TOS where they reserve right to share/sell your data :/

He didn’t say a name — he just said “My local board house.” I have to say, though, 150 “quid” is a great price for a quick turn proto from a small shop. I can’t get a local shop to engage for less than $500 US, regardless of size or quantity.

he did talk about Lattice MACHXO2, which is actually a huge CPLD. but there are different FPGA-s available too. those Lattice development kits are quite cheap and for many different types and makes it easy startpoint. development pacakges download is about 1.8gig vs much complex 4gig Xilinx

OMG – Dave and Mike alone on the show equals TOTALLY AMAZING EPISODE!! These are two well spoken guys with years and years of practical, hands-on engineering experience. Listening to them ramble on about their experience is both entertaining and worth it’s weight in gold. More Mike and Dave episodes in the future please!